


Love Lost in Time

by Mellowyellowdiamonds



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Oliver woos Felicity, but hopefully it will amuse you until next week, humourous crackfic, one last crackfic, very silly, what really happens after Crisis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:49:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22375204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mellowyellowdiamonds/pseuds/Mellowyellowdiamonds
Summary: Oliver gets his miracle reset and sets out to woo Felicity all over again.A humourous take (I hope) on a reset Happily Ever After.
Relationships: Oliver Queen & Felicity Smoak, Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Comments: 100
Kudos: 410





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi Guys!!!
> 
> If you've read all my stuff you will know I have a penchant for these crackfics, especially during stressful times with Arrow.
> 
> Since it is ending next week I couldn't resist writing one last crackfic one last time.
> 
> I hope I make you laugh one last time.

Oliver stares out of the hospital window. He’d been here before. Lived this life before. Only this time the emotions involved were completely different. He hadn’t expected this from the reset. He’d expected to fade into nothingness. Or maybe end up in a mirage where Felicity would be waiting for him. Because he knew that if he somehow survived this, if he wasn’t reduced to ashes and oblivion, wherever he ended up, whenever he ended up, Felicity would find him.

So apparently he did survive this, not only survived it but also bought himself eight extra years of time. Time he thought he’d lost forever. Time to tell Felicity he loved her sooner. Because there was no way he was going to bother with Star City or Starling (whatever the hell it was called right now) again. He’d paid his dues to this god-forsaken place and the universe. He was going to go out and get him some Felicity. He did this reset for Mia and William, so they could have a better future. Which meant that Mia had to be made (he wasn’t being selfish, the very existence of his heroic daughter depended on his ability to woo her Mama). The William problem he had a plan to tackle all in good time. But right now he had to go and convince Felicity to fall in love with him. Everything hinged on him getting the girl anyway so it wasn’t like he was using this as an excuse to chase down his wife sooner than fate intended.

“Oliver,” his mother says tentatively, her voice laced with worry. Oliver turns around and smiles at her. It was going to be easier on all of them this time round.

“Mom I am fine. I’m so sorry I got on that boat. I have been given a second chance and now I need to go to QC right away. I want to learn the ropes and make amends. Be the master of the universe in…um…business.” Oliver realizes he still has no idea about business but he figures none of that matters. He would just marry Felicity and she could run the business. Then everyone would be happy.

“Oliver dear…are you…are you feeling alright?” his mom asks again, looking even more concerned than when he was staring out the window.

“Of course I am,” Oliver assures her brightly. Maybe too brightly because now Moira is looking startled.

“Mom I’ve lost five years so I don’t want to dwell on it. I just want to move on with my life.”

“If that’s what you want I will support you.” Moira still looks unsure but Oliver can see she’s going to go along with this for now.

***

Oliver glances quickly at his cooler and the thermo bag one last time to make sure the contents were in tiptop condition. He quickly checks his reflection in the glass and grimaces self consciously. Damn reset didn’t make him look eight years younger despite resetting everyone else in age. He was going to look an extra eight years older than Felicity bringing their age gap to thirteen years.

Truth be told he felt a little bit dirty chasing the young, Librarian Barbie version of his wife. It brought back quite a few fantasies he had back in the day, only now he could act them out.

 _Stop it_. Oliver mentally smacks himself. Stop lusting after Felicity and get her to like you first.

***

“Felicity Smoak?”

“Hi I'm Oliver Queen.”

“You will always be the love of my life.”

“We were forced apart in another time line so I'm just going to get this ball rolling because I was really hoping for a few more kids when I did this reset.”

Oliver smiles at Felicity eagerly, his eyes lighting up as they meet hers. He’d thought long and hard about how he was going to do this and decided that honesty was the best policy. He’d made so many unilateral decisions for them in the past, this time he wanted to start with a clean slate even if that meant spilling the truth right away.

Felicity tilts her head and gives him a look of composed disbelief.

 _Dang it_. Maybe he had come on too strong. Oh well there was no going back now. In for a penny in for a pound or whatever it was Constantine used to say.

He decides to give her another heart eyed gaze. She was as cute as a button. Last time he was here he had a bullet ridden laptop to contend with. Now he could just gloriously relish in how adorable Felicity was. And he was going to marry her. Oliver would have squeed if he was the squeeing type.

“Well this is new...Shouldn't have had that third coffee this morning,” Felicity mutters to herself.

She takes a deep breath and composes herself.

“Mr. Queen?”

“No, Oliver. Mr. Queen was my dad. But he’s dead. I mean he drowned. But I haven’t. I lived this whole other life with you where we were separated and I had to die three times, maybe four, I’ve lost count as I seem to come back to life whenever it is convenient.” He winces and shakes himself in order to focus.

“Point is, and I hate saying this but we are meant to be. Really we are. I know it sounds crazy but this is my chance to tell you I love you sooner and I will not let it get away. I will not let you get away.”

“That sounds like a bit of a threat,” Felicity responds with a hint of mirth in her voice. “And I am the one who usually speaks in sentence fragments.”

“Well there you go. Told you we were married. Some of your traits rubbed off me after eight years.”

“We were married for eight years?” she raises an eyebrow at him. Oliver knew he’d gotten his foot in the door at least. Felicity might think he was nuts but Felicity was intrigued and that boded well for him. His wife loved mysteries.

“No, only about a year. Most of which I spent in jail because I turned myself to the authorities behind your back.”

“That doesn’t sound too good. Was other lifetime me angry? Tell me why I would want to take another swim in your pool this time round?”

Felicity is just goading him now. He’s all too familiar with that look. She’s not exactly hating him. She’s skeptical and uneasy but also trying to work out what his brand of crazy was while being quippy about it to hide her uneasiness.

“None of that matters because it will never happen again. But if you agree to marry me I will tell you all about it if you want to know.”

“Mr. Queen are you proposing legal marriage to me?” Felicity says looking scandalized and he’s not sure if she’s exaggerating or horrified for real.

“Well that is the end goal,” he says slowly, deliberately leaving out all the information about Mia and William. He’d given her enough reasons to think he was as crazy as Slade on Mirakuru today. No need to add more fuel to the fire by mentioning the kids.

“Are you? Would you…”Oliver trails off.

“Would I say yes?” Felicity finishes for him to which he straightens his shoulders and nods enthusiastically.

“Mr. Queen you’ve come back from the dead, strutted into my office, told me some ridiculous story about us being married in another lifetime and now insist that you want to propose legal marriage to me.”

“Yes but every word of it is true,” Oliver implores at her. He’s sounding and feeling a little whiny, which is probably not helping his cause since he was cold and angry in the past which made Felicity bestow her sunshine on him. Now he probably just seemed creepy. Damn it why couldn’t the universe finished the reset with him being married to Felicity already.

“Why me?” Felicity sighs rubbing her temples. She hadn’t exactly expected to deal with something like this when she showed up at work today.

“That sounds so much like the time you said _Why her_ so sadly after I slept with Isabel. Your face crushed me that day.” The words come tumbling out of his mouth and he immediately regrets them. He was taking this truth thing too far, too fast.

“You cheated on me?” Felicity looks indignant now, hands on hips as she glares at him.

“No! We weren’t together. We were just friends. I was in love with you but you were everything to me and I couldn’t bear to lose you so I tried to force my feelings away and told you that I couldn’t be with anyone I really cared about.”

“That sounds exhausting,” Felicity gives him a knowing look.

“I’ll admit life with me wasn’t easy. But I love you. I loved you back then and I love you now and I will love you in any other time or space.”

“Look…Mr. Queen…Oliver. You have to appreciate how I feel right now. I’m working away in my cubicle and some crazy guy comes along and tells me I’m his wife in another life.”

“You said something like that too,” Oliver points out gleefully finding that he got very excited and could not control himself whenever their classic quotes cropped up. It was different and yet the same.

Felicity shoots him a chastising look causing him to deflate immediately.

“Look I know it sounds crazy. But I love you and together we could have an adventure of a lifetime. I’m going to leave now but I would love to take you to dinner tomorrow once you’ve had time to process all this.”

“By process you mean believe you?” Felicity quips back although he detects a look of mildly fond amusement on her face. However his insecure demons kick in and he starts to wonder what if he was imagining things and she just thought he was plain old crazy.

“I brought these for you,” he says quickly shoving the bags at her.

To his delight Felicity looks intrigued and proceeds to open the bags.

“Two tubs of mint chip ice cream and a sandwich made with…waffles?” she says looking even more puzzled now.

“I love mint chip. That’s my favourite flavor of ice cream.”

“I know,” Oliver says triumphantly. “I also know I have stressed you out by dropping all this information on you so you will need to stress eat this afternoon.”

“I don’t know what this is?” Felicity waves the Monte Cristo at him.

“My specialty. Take a bite.”

Felicity looks hesitant, her eyes moving from him to the sandwich.

“Oh come on what motivation could I possibly have to spike or poison your food in the middle of the day in my own company?”

He leans down and takes a bite of the sandwich in her hand.

“See?” he says encouragingly.

Felicity gingerly takes a bit of the sandwich, chewing on it, her face looking thoughtful. She doesn’t say anything for a few seconds.

Oliver starts cussing the Monitor and Anti Monitor in his head. If they’ve left it so that Felicity doesn’t like Monte Cristos in this life there will be hell to pay. Well they were both dead but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to curse them for an eternity. Really he could afford to be remarkably petty in this life. He had all the time for it.

“It’s delicious. Quite a revelation.”

“Sooo…a date?” Oliver asks eagerly.

“When did I agree to a date in the last life?” Felicity asks with the air of one who had been worn down and was going to cave in for the sake of peace.

“You agreed to much worse than a date. Before the date you agreed to be my partner in a vigilante crime fighting team and before that I showed up in the back of your car bleeding.”

“Oh this just keeps getting better and better,” Felicity finds it in herself to chuckle at his outrageous story. What struck her was how earnest and sincere Oliver sounded despite all the wacky stories he was piling on her.

“I promise I’ll tell you everything in detail over dinner if you’ll give me a chance.”

Felicity glances at the ridiculously handsome man standing in front of her who was looking at her like she hung the moon. Her eyes move to the two cartons of mint chip in the frozen cooler bag.

Maybe this was a very bad idea and she was going to end up with the son of the almighty powerful Moira Queen as her stalker. Or maybe, just maybe the man standing before her was telling the truth. Maybe the world was bigger than she thought or knew.

“Okay,” she says with a warm smile.

“Really?” Oliver asks beaming at her looking both thrilled and in disbelief at the same time. He hadn’t expected this. He’d hope for the best and deep down believed they would find their way back to each other somehow but he hadn’t expected to have her all to himself right away. His reset really was a miracle.

“Yes really. Now you have to let me get back to work before I examine my very poor decision making and change my mind,” Felicity waves him off with a laugh.

“You will always be the love of my life Felicity. I’ll prove it to you in time.”

“First date remember? Let’s dial down all the love of your life stuff ok Romeo?”

Felicity leans over to give his hand a pat and he could just die of happiness. Scratch that he wasn’t going to die. Nothing going to kill him this time. He’d died more than his fair share of times and enough for Felicity’s share too.

“I shall try,” Oliver nods at her with as much dignity as he could muster while cradling the hand she touched. He was never going to wash this hand until she touched another part of him. That may sound dirty but he stood by his decision.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since you asked so nicely I clobbered up another chapter for you! Definitely not to be taken seriously as it is full of nonsense! I take no responsibility for this rubbish because you asked for it =P
> 
> I figure why not do one last one, one last time just like I used to do for some of my other fics!
> 
> It really is the end of an era guys! *group hug*
> 
> Anyways I hope you enjoy it! I always worry the magic gets destroyed once I start adding chapters to these kinds of stories! I always think they fare better as silly, once off one shots.

“So tell me how did our first date go?” Felicity finally asks. Oliver had been gazing at her all night, hanging onto every word she uttered and occasionally showing delight when she revealed some mundane fact about herself.

Felicity wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or slightly disturbed by this. It was as if he was experiencing a thrill when hearing about certain aspects of her life. Certainly he was attentive, perhaps too attentive. Felicity didn’t quite know what to make of this. What to make of him. It wasn’t every day that presumed dead billionaires came back to life and started to chase her around. She was still trying to grasp how or why this was her life right now.

“Are you sure you want to know? It may make you have reservations about us,” Oliver says looking slightly nervous.

“Oliver you walked into my office and told me I was the love of your life. Of course I have reservations about us! If there is an us at all. One date does not make an us,” Felicity says feeling a bit exasperated. Part of the reason why she agreed to this date was because she hated mysteries and there was certainly no mystery bigger than the alive again billionaire of Starling declaring undying love to her only a few weeks after his return.

The second reason, one which she would never tell the man across from her, if only for his sanity’s sake, was that there was something about him. She couldn’t quite pinpoint it. As insane and inconceivable as his story was, there was something about the way he looked at her, the pure love he had in his eyes whenever he looked at her. The wonderment and joy. Whenever Felicity felt like she’d had enough of his nonsense, that look alone forced her to reexamine what she accepted as reality.

“Ummm…there was an explosion in the restaurant,” Oliver admits tentatively.

“An explosion?” Felicity almost splutters on her wine. “How? Why?”

“Well remember how I told you I was a crime fighting vigilante? Well I was a smitten crime fighting vigilante who was too busy swooning about his date with you so someone tried to blow up the restaurant on our date.”

“What happened after?” Felicity was fascinated all right. Somehow this actually made his story about his other timeline with her more plausible. Otherwise why would he admit to there being so many hurdles in their relationship?

Unless Oliver Queen had a penchant for drama, which she couldn’t completely rule out. It was very sensational to walk in and declare undying love to someone you had never met before even if she was your wife in another time. Felicity herself would have taken a more subtle approach.

“I told you dramatically that I couldn’t be with you and be the Arrow. Then I gave you a tragic kiss, our first kiss actually and you walked away from me.”

He pauses, looking hesitant.

“Go on,” Felicity urges impatiently. “What happened next?”

This was getting good, akin to some kind of superhero drama and apparently she was the leading lady. Her. Felicity Smoak who went to MIT and wore pencil skirts and cardigans.

“You dated Ray Palmer, there was a love triangle, I pined, Palmer got upset, I joined the League of Assassins,” Oliver mumbles.

“Ray Palmer? Billionaire Ray Palmer? I, Felicity Megan Smoak was embroiled in a love triangle with you, Oliver Queen and Ray Palmer.”

Felicity takes a breath and closes her eyes in disbelief.

“Well yes but it didn’t work out so well for poor Ray. He left you all his money though.”

“What?” Felicity almost yelps. “You know what, never mind. Apparently I led a very colorful life.”

“It can be kind of overwhelming to hear everything at once. We didn’t lead easy lives but I don’t regret anything except for the fact that I didn’t tell you I loved you sooner,” Oliver says wistfully.

“So you marched in and did it yesterday,” Felicity quips but with a smile on her face.

“So what are you doing in this life? Are you also a vigilante? Do you need my help?”

“No,” Oliver says slowly. “When I reset the universe it was for a brighter future for you and our kids. I honestly thought I would die but I guess I ended up here as part of some reset. So it’s just a better world where we get to live our lives without being beholden to saving the world and Starling constantly.”

“What are you planning to do then?” Felicity asks. Given the burdens that were placed on the poor man in his past life, Felicity found herself taking a great interest in what he planned for himself in this one.

“Marry you, have you run Queens Consolidated while I stay home and take care of the kids when they’re young,” Oliver answers straight away. “After that I’m not sure but I’ll figure it out.”

“So your grand plan after being given a second chance at a better life involves you having progeny with me?” Felicity narrows her eyes at him. It rattled her that she wasn’t entirely against the idea.

“About that…I know I come off a bit strong but we have a little girl. Her name is Mia. She’s sassy, tough, beautiful just like you. She…I need for her to exist. I reset this entire universe for our children to have a better life…” Oliver trails off and suddenly there is a lost look on his face. Maybe he had this all wrong. He couldn’t force Felicity have a relationship with him and the way he had gone about it wasn’t exactly subtle. He was practically badgering her to be with him.

The idea of there not being a them was inconceivable, the idea of Mia not existing made him die inside all over again but Felicity was a free person with her own freewill in this life. He couldn’t steamroll her into accepting him. Not that anyone could steamroll Felicity into anything.

“It’s ok I understand,” she says with a gentle smile. She reaches for his hand and gives it a squeeze.

“I don’t know why but I can read you like an open book. You feel like you’re forcing me into my destiny with you and it pains you to do that.”

“You…does this mean you believe me Felicity?”

“I just need time. Whatever will happen between us will happen. The universe will fix it for you so don’t beat yourself up about it ok.”

“Something tells me you inflicted a lot of guilt on yourself in the last life so do not do that this time.”

Felicity reaches across and cups his face with her hands. Oliver leans into her touch, relishing the moment. The gesture was both comforting and familiar for both of them however Felicity immediately draws back once she realizes what she’s doing. There was a distinct feeling of deja vu that she couldn’t explain. It was as if she’d done this many, many times before.

“I have a surprise for you,” Oliver says with a shy smile, hoping to shift the tension in the air that had settled upon them.

“More food in cooler bags?” Felicity grins at him appreciating the fact that their normal dynamics had been restored.

“No food this time. Let’s order and finish dessert and then I’ll show you.”

***  
  
“That…that is an abandoned warehouse,” Felicity whispers as she peers at the dark, dimly lit building.

“I know but it’s very nice inside I promise,” Oliver replies soothingly as he holds out a hand and tries to get her to follow him into the warehouse.

“That’s what serial killers say before they abduct their victims,” Felicity says crossing her arms defensively.

It really was ridiculous of course because Oliver would have killed her already if he wanted to or dragged her into the warehouse. He certainly wouldn’t be standing there, patiently trying to coax her in. Yet Felicity couldn’t shake off the absurdity of following a man she hardly knew into an abandoned warehouse just because he asked her to.

“We were vigilantes in the other life. This was where we worked every night. Please Felicity? I really want to show you something.”

“I feel very foolish for doing this,” Felicity mutters as she grudgingly follows him in. “Goes against all common sense.”

“Imagine how terrible it would look for you if I was a killer. Woman with 170 IQ gets lured into warehouse,” Oliver teases trying to lighten the mood.

“Really comforting you are,” Felicity rolls her eyes at him in the dark. “Hey how do you know my IQ?”

Oliver punches in an alarm code, the door springs open and there is light as they walk into the building.

“No need to answer that. Married in other life. I momentarily forgot due to the sheer fear of you killing me.”

Felicity stops in her tracks the moment her eyes focus on the display in front of her.

The space was nothing like what she had imagined it to be. There were plush comfortable looking couches, a huge conference table, some training mats set up in the corner.

She inhales sharply when she spots a bay of computers. Brand new, state of the art computers that she could not dream of being able to afford. For a brief moment Felicity wondered if Oliver would let her take them apart. Judging by the besotted and thrilled look on his face he would probably buy her ten more if she asked. She still found it peculiar but that seems to be her reality now.

“Do you like it?” he beams at her. “You used to have all this to yourself to run. Obviously we’re not vigilantes but I thought you might like this space to hang out and code.”

“I love it. You sure know your way to a girl’s heart. Well of course you do because true love and all that but yes I love it. Thank you Oliver.”

Felicity stands up on her tippy toes and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

“I’m going to have them put in a kitchenette and a small bathroom over the next few weeks. It’s a work in progress but I wanted to show you in case you have any ideas of your own.”

“I…this is just too much,” Felicity exhales. And it was. It was a hugely grand gesture. She knew that in his mind he wanted to give her the world but there was a part of her that felt like she would be taking an advantage of him if she were to accept this. They, in this life, weren’t anything yet.

“We spent a lot of time in this place together. We were friends for many years. Look I’ve put in some equipment for myself too. I thought it would be a good neutral ground for us to get to know each other again,” Oliver explains, reading exactly everything that is going on in her mind.

Felicity smiles softly at him before her eyes catch hold of another object.

“What’s that?” she asks pointing a shiny ladder like structure that had no rungs.

“Oh that, that is a salmon ladder,” Oliver answers casually, too casually. He puffs out his chest as he leans against it. “I use it sometimes to work out.”

“Cool,” Felicity smiles at him brightly.

“Would you like to tinker with your new machines? I don’t mind, I can wait for you,” Oliver offers looking extremely good-natured. Sure he was about to resort to some shameless tactics but it would just be plain stupid to not capitalize on the knowledge he held from the past.

“You sure you don’t mind?” Felicity asks despite itching to turn on the machines. “Because I did promise you a date and now I am abandoning you for technology.”

“Nothing would make me happier,” Oliver beams at her. “Apart from you agreeing to legal marriage right now,” he adds for good measure, which earns him a swat from Felicity.

***  
  
Clang, clang, clang

So this was what he was playing at.

Felicity would be amused if she weren’t too busy being mesmerized by the sight before her.

About ten minutes into her exploring her machines Felicity had heard a clanging noise and turned around to see (much to her jaw dropping delight) that Oliver had shed his shirt and was “performing” on this marvelous object that was the salmon ladder.

And marvelous it was. She felt no shame in admitting it. Oliver had obviously set this up for a purpose and this was one thing she was going to happily roll along with.

Felicity kicks back on the very comfortable office chair that he had thoughtfully bought for her, places her hands behind the back of her head and watches the display before her.

Up and down he went. Every muscle on display and glistening with sweat. He really wasn’t as sweet and innocent as he let on.

***

The abrupt crash snaps Felicity out of her trance causing her to jump out of her chair and sprint towards Oliver.

He’d miss a rung and come crashing down as a result.

“Oh frack are you alright? That was a bad fall. Here let me check that you haven’t broken anything.”

Felicity is hovering around him, her fingers fluttering all over his body as she checks him for injuries.

Oliver groans and grimaces. He buries his face in his hands. He felt like he was dying. At least he wanted to. He couldn’t face her again after this. Maybe he would just die of embarrassment right here, admit that he’d failed his kids and call it a day.

“Oliver I don’t think there are any broken ribs but do you think we should go to hospital to make sure?” Felicity asks, concern written all over her face.

Oliver grimaces and hides his face from her again. He couldn’t face her. This was mortifying. Damn reset universe refused to reset his age so he couldn’t even woo Felicity on the salmon ladder anymore. It was working against him once again just like it did in the past life.

“Oliver? Oliver!”

Felicity is trying to cradle him now and he just wishes the floor or the universe or one of the damn Monitors would swallow him up.

“I’m fine,” he finally manages to answer her looking deflated and with zero dignity. He hoped he wasn’t crying. It would be awful to fall off the salmon ladder and cry.

“Are you sure you’re not hurt?” Felicity is gazing at him with worried eyes that make him feel a bit better. That look of concern and compassion he thought he would never see again.

“Only my pride,” he tells her with a groan. “The universe did not reset my age so I am eight years older that I should be when we first met.” He doesn’t explain further however a look of understanding dawns on Felicity’s face.

“And I take it you did the salmon ladder lots in front of me when we first met?” Felicity says with much sympathy and a hint of mirth in her voice.

Oliver nods at her, looking like a wounded puppy. “I used to do it all night while you worked.”

“That’s…impressive but a lot of preening. Again it sounds exhausting both in the physical and metaphorical sense.”

Oliver doesn’t say anything but continues to look woeful.

“How about I kiss those boo boos and we call it a night?”

The words fly out of her mouth before she has a chance to regret them but seeing as Oliver visibly brightens up at once she simply smiles and tries to look as composed as possible.

“There,” he says pointing to his lower ribs.

Felicity bends down and places a soft kiss on said spot, the sensation of her lips touching his skin causing them both to heat up as they flush bright red.

“There as well.” He points to his left shoulder.

Felicity obliges with another kiss.

“There.” This time Oliver is pointing to his left side.

Felicity gives him a hearty smack of a kiss, having shaken off the initial awkwardness and magic that was lingering in the air.

“There.”

“That’s your stomach.”

“It hurts there.”

“But you didn’t land on your stomach.”

“But it hurts there.”

“Are you trying to get me to kiss your abs?”

“It would make me feel better.”

“This is the weirdest form of foreplay.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Halloo!
> 
> I am not even sure why I keep coming back to this fic! I am actually perfectly fine with Olicity's official ending on Arrow so I find it super weird that I am writing a reset!
> 
> But here is another instalment since I am having fun with it!

“It’s lunchtime.”

Just like that Oliver Queen’s ridiculously handsome face pops out of nowhere causing Felicity to startle as she almost topples out of her chair.

Of course within microseconds he is in her personal space, hand on her waist to steady her.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to startle you,” he says with an amused yet doting grin on his face, causing Felicity to feel torn between the irritation of him once again popping out of nowhere in her workplace (well so it’s his family company but she was a professional with a job to do and people were beginning to talk) and well…the doting.

As much as Felicity tried to remind herself that the doting and heart eyes were both indulgent and dramatic on his part, it was hard to keep her head and not let herself fall into the wonderful labyrinth that was Oliver Queen. Especially when he was always there to remind her of his existence. And undying love. Always the undying love.

“Why must you sneak around like a cat on the prowl and suddenly appear like that?” Felicity huffs, giving him a small glare.

“Felicity I am trying to respect the fact that you don’t want to make our relationship a big deal,” Oliver responds innocently. “Otherwise I can just walk in loud and proud, let everyone know that I’m here to take the future Mrs. Queen out to lunch.”

“Will you stop it with all that Mrs. Queen talk,” Felicity whispers, glancing around nervously.

She wasn’t sure why she was so on edge exactly. They were dating…sort of. Most days he showed up to take her to lunch and quite a few nights a week they spent time together in what he insisted on calling the Arrow Cave (with a knowing look on his face). Speaking of said Arrow Cave they were quite a team and put in some stellar renovations together. Felicity hated to admit it but it was her home away from home of sorts…with Oliver. Her only problem was she wasn’t quite sure how she ended up like this. She was happy, just somewhat perplexed.

Felicity glances over to find him on one knee, with an adoring smile on his face.

“Why are you on one knee? Oh for the love of Google, get up,” Felicity demands in a vexed voice.

“I was steadying you and ended up like this,” Oliver says, feigning innocence. He beams at her and changes the subject. “So, lunch?”

“Why are you always offering me meals and why are you always on one knee?” Felicity sighs.

“You don’t take care of yourself very well. Someone has to take care of you. You get lost in you work and eat crisps. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

He got her there.

Felicity grudgingly gives him a small smile and reaches over to pull him up to a stand.

“You sure you don’t want to agree to legal marriage since I’m already in this position?” he asks cheekily before standing up.

“Ha! I would have said yes but you stood up. Too bad,” Felicity teases him against her better judgment. She really shouldn’t be encouraging him but sometimes the absurdity of their situation got the better of her sense of humour.

Oliver pouts at her and Felicity can’t resist rubbing his back to comfort him.

“Were you like this in the last life or lifetime or timeline, whatever?” she asks, her hand still on his back.

“I would have liked to be,” he answers thoughtfully with an air of wistfulness.

“Our past life, it was difficult at best. One crisis after another, one sacrifice after another. This time with the reset I told myself it would just be you. I have all the time in the world for you. To do all the things I wanted but never got to do. I probably should handle things differently but I thought I had died and then here I was with you again in completely different circumstances.”

Sometimes when she felt overwhelmed by him it was easy to forget why he’d come to be the way he was. He’d told her everything about his journey to becoming the Green Arrow, how five years at Lian Yu had changed him and the course of his entire life. The end of that lifetime had shaped him into the man who was trying to pursue her today. 

“I’m sorry I get exasperated with you sometimes.” Felicity stands on her tippy toes and kisses him softly on each cheek.

“Two kisses in the middle of your office. You must be warming to me,” Oliver says caressing his cheeks triumphantly.

“Sooooo…lunch?” he says grinning at her hopefully.

Felicity sighs and nods however there is a huge smile on her face. After all when your tragic, lovelorn husband from a past life shows up to chase you around, there is only so many times and ways you can be skeptical and refuse him.

***

“This is very nice,” Felicity says emphatically, taking a little joyful hop as they walk side by side in the sunshine. “It does beat eating take out in that dark little office of mine.”

Oliver gazes at his would be wife. Unbeknownst to her Felicity was wearing that tight little polka dot top she wore the first time he laid eyes on her. Her ponytail with the single large golden curl, bobbled in the sunshine as she babbled on about how she’d gone out to lunch more times with him that month than she had in her entire first year at Starling.

“So what do you think? If you are going to show up most days for lunch I want to contribute. I make a decent living but we obviously operate on very different income scales so how about I choose the venue a few times a week and pay for lunch?”

Felicity stops gesticulating and Oliver jumps at the chance to snatch her tiny, soft hand and slip it seamlessly into his.

“Ooh,” Felicity says glancing down at their hands in surprise.

“I suppose I have kissed your abs so this is not a big deal in the scheme of things.”

Felicity gives a little shrug and grasps his hand tighter, her body leaning closer to his.

“So what do you think about my idea?” she asks him again.

“Felicity I am happy to do whatever makes you happy. You paid for everything when the Queen fortune was lost and Palmer left you all his money.”

“I feel like I should be alarmed by that comment but at this point it’s like I’m immune to it all,” Felicity says shaking her head.

“There’s more hair raising stuff when you’re ready for it,” Oliver says wrapping one arm around her waist.

Felicity is conscious that they are now effectively canoodling in public despite the indeterminate state of their relationship. Well it was indeterminate for her. Oliver would happily tell her (and possibly anyone else who would listen that she was his wife.

***  
  
“Ollie?”

Tommy’s boisterous voice rings in his ears, causing Oliver to internally groan. He tears his eyes away from Felicity to see a furious looking Laurel and his cheerful former best friend who had just showed up behind them to be seated at Sage.

“Hello,” Oliver says awkwardly, rapidly trying to decide how quickly he intended to rip the Band-Aid off and how annoyed Felicity would be with him.

Tommy had visited him when he first woke up, carefree as ever. Eager to resume where they’d left off. The topic of Laurel had not been brought up much to Oliver’s relief and he had blithely decided to ignore it. It had nothing to do with his pursuit of Felicity anyway and thus in his world did not register much importance.

Except now he was stuck in this restaurant with a furious, caustic looking Laurel. Oliver did not want some sort of scene that would set him back on his plan to marry Felicity.

“Who’s your friend Ollie?” Tommy asks giving him a jovial wink. Tommy bless him was genuinely happy for his friend.

“Felicity Smoak, the love of my life. I am currently trying to get her to fall in love with me and agree to marriage,” Oliver answers all in one breath. 

“It’s…complicated,” he squeaks when he observes that Felicity looks like she’s got steam billowing out of her ears.

“You did not just say that,” she whispers fiercely as she elbows him.

“I needed to cut ties with my old life. You know how that went down. Let me do this quickly. I will be subtle from now on,” his whispers closely into her ear, knowing full well that she was ticklish and would break into giggles thereby shortening the length of time that she would remain cross at him.

His strategy works and Felicity is looking less annoyed.

“Say what Ollie?” Tommy asks with a stunned look on his face.

“While I was away, those five years I was missing. It was like a lifetime. Felicity was, is, the love of my life. I don’t want to elaborate because as I said, it’s complicated. But yeah…this is Felicity. The future Mrs. Queen.”

Oliver wraps his arms around a resigned looking Felicity and gives her a squeeze.

“She’s the future Mrs. Queen and it’s complicated?” Laurel’s voice is shrill as she narrows her eyes and glares at him.

“You cheated on me with my sister, left to go on a sex cruise with her. After five years you suddenly appear and you have the nerve to stand here and tell me you want to marry this woman out of nowhere and that it’s complicated?”

Laurel is seething now. Tommy places a placating hand on her shoulder however she ignores him, her fury concentrated on Oliver.

“And for that I am very sorry Laurel. Truly I am sorry. I really don’t have anymore to say to you about that.”

“You show up out of nowhere and declare this woman to be the love of your life!” Laurel practically screeches. They’ve moved out of the line now and other people are staring at them with fascination.

Felicity is looking like she wants to crawl into a hole and vanish which causes Oliver’s stress levels to rise ten fold. Yes he had made a mistake but that was a lifetime ago for goodness sakes. Surely his mistakes in his youth were not going to cause him to lose Felicity in this lifetime. They were absolutely irrelevant to his relationship with Felicity.

“We don’t have to get into this ever again Laurel. I’m sorry. I wish you the best in life. I just want to get on with mine.”

He’s trying to keep as calm as he can despite internally freaking out that he’s taken two steps forward and ten steps back with Felicity because of this unfortunate encounter.

“How did you even meet her?” Laurel crosses her arms defiantly with the air of a woman who was going to persist until she got the answers she wanted.

“He showed up at my office and declared that I was the love of his life. Then he tried to propose. Failing to achieve that he asked me out on a date.”

Felicity’s tone is kind however there is a twinkle in her eye that sooths Oliver’s rankled soul. She’s not angry or even annoyed. She’s actually trying to help him extract himself from this unpleasant situation. Heck it looked like Felicity even saw the humour in their first encounter. There was a certain fondness in her voice.

“I thought it was VERY strange believe me but he persisted and so here we are today. At lunch. Being confronted by his ex.”

“But how…” Laurel trails off suddenly looking more lost and baffled rather than angry.

“Honestly?” Felicity says with the air of someone who is about to unleash unwelcomed information but is doing it for the greater good. “He was in love with me a long time ago. A lifetime ago. And he wants to reconnect again.”

“Did you cheat on me with her?” Laurel demands angrily turning to face Oliver.

“No!” Both Oliver and Felicity answer in unison. “We were in love a lifetime ago.”

Their eyes lock as the same words roll out of their mouths. Felicity blushes and Oliver beams at her, temporarily forgetting that he was having a confrontation with his ex in public.

Felicity believed him. Felicity truly believed him. Believed in them. In their love. It did not mean that she was going to move as quickly as he wanted but her deep underlying love from him, it was still there. No matter how different things were in this life, Felicity was the love of his life and in time Oliver knew he was going to be the love of hers. And not in a creepy way either since she was currently gazing at him like she was very much on board with this.

“You know what I think I got my reservations mixed up so how about we go to Flambe’s instead Laurel? The guy there is an acquaintance of mine. We’ll definitely get a table.”

Tommy grabs Laurel’s arm and gently ushers her out of the restaurant. He does not look back at Oliver and Felicity. Tommy decides he has heard enough for now.

***  
  
“You…you have a very good appetite?” Oliver says tentatively as Felicity tucks into her gnocchi with much gusto, closing her eyes in satisfaction every time she chews on a pillowy piece of pasta.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Felicity asks, waving a scallop at his mouth by way of offering him a bite.

Oliver opens his mouth and chomps on the scallop right away. He was sharing spit with Felicity. It was amazing and it meant that there was currently no setback despite everything that had happened today.

“You do realize that I live every day waiting for you to bestow your affections on me?”

“You are such a drama queen. Ohh you could officially change your name to that,” she says with a giggle.

“I want us to move forward,” Oliver blurts out, grabbing her hand.

Felicity finishes chewing the prawn that is in her mouth and swallows before placing a hand over his.

“And we will. In time. You just need to calm down and take it one day at a time. You said a lot of things happened when you first came back from the Island right? And this is a reset? Well you are going to have a confront quite a few of those same but different situations.”

She smiles at him encouragingly.

“If I am truly the great love of your life, if I am going to be even half of the woman I apparently was in the last life, I will not scare easily and you will not lose me over such trivial things.”

“Felicity you are remarkable.” Oliver beams at the incredible woman across from him.

“Thank you for remarking on it,” she quips back.

“Oh my god you said it exactly like that the first time too,” Oliver chortles in delight.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe ok I surrender! I will finish this for you! I am in a super silly mood these days with all the stress of trying to move house so why not! It will help me unwind.
> 
> I just hope it is still funny!

From the moment Moira received the call revealing her beloved son was in fact still alive, she had been waiting for the other shoe to drop. How could she not after everything Oliver had been through?

Moira knew that as horrifying as the scars on the surface were, deep down her son harbored deeper, psychological scars that she could not even begin to fathom.

She’d tentatively let him try to get on with his life, all while waiting, almost holding her breath to see when and how he would break.

Felicity Smoak.

Blonde, bubbly and with a manner that could be construed as endearingly awkward. So this was the manifestation of Oliver’s psychological torment.

At first Moira ignored the signs. Oliver was just starting where he’d left off she’d told herself.

Oliver’s tumultuous on again, off again relationship with Laurel in the past, coupled with the fact that Laurel was now dating Tommy, caused Moira to assume that Oliver had gone on his blonde chasing frenzy in an attempt to lash out at the notion that his best friend was dating his great love.

Most unfortunately this was not the case. If the rumors floating around QC were to be true Oliver seemed to be having some mental break where he’d been spotted repeatedly badgering this Felicity Smoak, declaring her to be his great love and showing up every day at QC to make the same declarations over and over again.

She wasn’t even going to delve into the talk of the alleged marriage proposals. Moira preferred to avoid thinking about that altogether.

At best Moira thought this Felicity would go along with whatever her son wanted. They always did. The allure of the Queen name and money was too good for anyone to resist. At worst she’d expected some sort of a harassment complaint or blackmail both of which she would handle quickly and efficiently.

What she hadn’t expected was for the deceivingly innocent looking Felicity Smoak to play with long game and dangle Oliver along like a lovesick puppy.

When the news of a manic Oliver declaring this Felicity Smoak as his lost love to Tommy and Laurel in a restaurant reached Moira’s ears, she had tried her best to ignore it and keep calm.

However the last straw for Moira was when she discovered a string of charges for furniture and tradespeople on her son’s accounts. Upon further investigation by her trusty security advisor John Diggle, it was discovered that Oliver had built some sort of a love nest to house this girl. A love nest in an abandoned warehouse. What kind of a normal decent girl would agree to meet with her son in an abandoned warehouse every night.

Moira decided enough was enough. Felicity Smoak was doing something to lure Oliver into her web and successfully keep him there. It was high time she stepped in to resolve the matter.

***  
  
“Mr. Diggle is this some sort of a joke?” Moira asks staring at the information presented before her.

“No Mrs. Queen. At least not on my side. I have enlisted some very skilled hackers to dig into every aspect of Ms. Smoak’s life and this is what they came up with,” John Diggle informs Moira solemnly, his stoic features immovable. All except the sparkle of amusement in his eyes which Moira chooses to ignore.

“It says here that she breeds British Blue kittens and Newfoundland puppies and is a champion at Crufts. Complete with records and photos. Walter, my own husband can attest that she has been at work almost every day and has not left the country. How can she have a Best in Show win at Crufts? There are no Newfoundland dogs in Starling.”

Moira’s tone remains impressively calm and dignified despite her frustration.

“No matter what kind of searches the team runs, this is what they come up with Mrs. Queen. She’s also registered as the owner of an ice cream factory that manufactures mint chip ice cream exclusively and allegedly runs a cookie bakery.”

John Diggle shoots his boss a placating look before continuing, “I would say it is safe to assume that the very talented Ms. Smoak knows we are onto her and is having a bit of fun at our expense.”

“Very well then,” Moira sighs with the air of one who is about to undertake the unpleasant task of swatting an irritating fly that’s been buzzing around for too long.

“I shall pay Ms. Smoak a visit and attend to this myself.”

***  
  
“Felicity Smoak.”

Felicity swings around to find herself looking into the cool eyes of Moira Queen. Yup, this time there was no cute head tilt and certainly no declarations of love from this Queen. Come to think if it she didn’t think she could handle another declaration of love from any more of the Queens so it was just as well.

Felicity bites back a smile only to see Moira stare at her both with intrigue and a touch of annoyance.

“Mrs. Queen. I’m guessing you’re not here for IT help or a marriage proposal?”

Moira looks downright startled by this comment and for a brief second loses her composure.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to say that. There are no marriage proposals. At least I haven’t accepted any from your son.”

Felicity bites her lip and shakes her head.

“Three, two, one. What can I do for your Mrs. Queen?” she tries to smile brightly at the other woman who was looking rather unimpressed.

“You are an intelligent young lady Felicity. You went to MIT and you’ve caught on that I’ve been looking into you so let me get straight to the point.”

Moira Queen is not exactly looking angry or menacing much to Felicity’s relief. Rather she had the air of one who needed something attended to swiftly.

“I'm guessing you’re not pleased about my…friendship with your son.”

“Oh Felicity I think we both know you’re angling for more than friendship,” Moira tells her crisply.

“Oliver is certainly aiming for more than friendship. I assure you I am doing my utmost best to keep him from proposing marriage and babies every second day. Your son is very intense believe me.”

Felicity stops abruptly when she notices Moira’s eyes have now gone cold. Not that they were ever warm to begin with but she certainly wasn’t impressed with Felicity’s rambling. Felicity made a mental note to ask Oliver more about her relationship with his mother in the past life. He’d told her snippets of what ultimately became Moira’s fate and judging by the demeanor of the woman standing in front of her, Moira Queen was Moira Queen no matter which timeline.

“Felicity we both know what needs to happen here,” Moira says pulling out a chair coolly and sitting across from Felicity.

“We do?” Felicity squeaks.

Was this woman going to try and off her? The love of Oliver’s life? Would he come swinging in, dressed in his leathers to save her? It might be worth an assassination attempt by Moira Queen to see Oliver in his glorious superhero leathers Felicity mused to herself.

Oliver was too much of a gentleman to say anything directly but he had occasionally hinted that they often knocked boots while he was dressed in the various incarnations of his superhero costumes. At this point Felicity figured everything had gone crazy in her life so what was the harm in lusting over Oliver as a super hero.

Moira clears her throat to indicate her displeasure at Felicity’s drifting off. Although there was something about the girl which intrigued her. There was a certain scattiness that Moira might have found honest and endearing under different circumstances. The women Oliver normally fraternized with were either airheads or purposeful gold diggers, Laurel included. Felicity Smoak was different. She seemed intelligent yet chaotic at the same time as evidenced by the ridiculous online trail she concocted about herself. Moira supposed this was all part and parcel of her charm and why she was able to hold Oliver under her spell for so long.

“This is for you.” Moira pushes a cheque towards Felicity’s direction.

“I trust that this will more than compensate you for leaving QC. I will personally write you a glowing letter of recommendation for any position you wish to pursue after this. You will tell Oliver that it is your wish to leave town and pursue a different path in life.”

Felicity reaches out to accept the cheque and says nothing. She stares at the amount written on the cheque, her intense gaze almost burning a hole in the paper.

Three million dollars. Moira Queen wanted to pay her three million dollars to leave Oliver. Oliver whose sole purpose was to be with her and start a family.

“Very well Mrs. Queen.” Felicity gives a little nod and slowly tucks the cheque into a compartment in her handbag.

“You agree to my request?”

There was a hint of disbelief in the Queen Matriarch’s voice. Felicity was supposed to be different. She had expected Felicity to put up a fight. Moira found herself feeling disappointed on behalf of Oliver.

“You are not a woman who should be trifled with Mrs. Queen,” Felicity says flatly. “I am not feeling like I have a choice here so why fight with someone as powerful as yourself. Now if you will excuse me, I guess I no longer need to finish an honest day’s work today.”

“All the best Felicity.”

Moira stands up to leave however she cannot quite shake off the lingering air of disappointment that pervades her.

***

“You have got to find a new direction for your life because it looks like raising our progeny while I run QC is not going to work out for you,” Felicity storms in speaking at a thousand miles a minute.

“Wait, what? What’s going on?” Oliver drops down from the salmon ladder. Shirtless. Always shirtless of course. He’d decided to take a little downtime to work on the old physique. Felicity deserved his best in every lifetime after all and judging by how inseparable they were it would not be long before he could make moves on his wife again. He had to get ready for it.

“Your mother is a piece of work. She dropped by my office to give me this.”

Felicity waves the cheque in front of Oliver pausing just long enough for him to read the amount written on it.

“She offered you money?”

“To leave you and leave town. And no she wasn’t asking. It was clear from her tone that she had other ways of dealing with me, all of which were much more unpleasant than a three million dollar payout.”

Felicity was fuming now, her cheeks a bright angry crimson while her eyes were flashing bluer than ever.

“What…what are you going to do?” Oliver asks her softly his shoulders slumping as dejection takes over his body.

Even shirtless and sad he was still hot Felicity muses to herself. Actually he was insanely hot. Broken hearted hero with shiny skin and abs you could zest lemons on. Maybe that’s why she hadn’t run away from this madness yet. Maybe it wasn’t destiny. She was just a shallow, shallow girl who couldn’t say no to a puppy of a man with big muscles.

“Oh stop looking like a puppy who got left out in the rain,” Felicity huffs at him sternly. “Of course I’m not going to leave. I will stay with you and find gainful employment somewhere else. Maybe start my own business since I am semi rich now thanks to your mother.”

“You’re keeping the money and you’re not leaving?”

Oliver’s eyes sparkle as he grabs Felicity by the waist and swings her around. This was the fierce Felicity he knew and loved. Well she would always be the Felicity he knew and loved but it was thrilling to witness that fire he was so familiar with his entire life.

“Your mother completely brought this on herself,” Felicity sniffs disgruntledly. She does soften at the adoring look on Oliver’s face. He was gazing at her with that sense of wonderment again.

“Oh stop mooning over me. I just took money from your family fortune and have no qualms about it. It does serve your mother right though, blackmailing me like that.”

Suddenly Oliver’s face falls and becomes subdue.

“Oliver,” she says softly. “What’s wrong?”

“My mother’s blackmail. It’s reminded me of something I have to tell you. I was going to tell you but I could never find the right time.”

“Felicity you have to believe me that I was going to tell you this time,” Oliver pleads as he grabs her hand.

Felicity ducks behind him and marches him towards the sofa.

“Sit,” she orders. Oliver obediently complies.

“Now tell me what is going on with you. You went from happy to spooked in a second flat and you’re not a guy who scares easily Mister.”

Oliver reaches for her hand again and plays with her fingers. There is silence between them however Felicity waits patiently.

“I have a child. He’s probably about six years old now. I was with his mother while I was dating Laurel and when Samantha got pregnant I was so scared I went to my mom for help. My mother paid off Samantha who told me she had a miscarriage but William is very much well and alive somewhere.”

He pauses to take a breath, still clinging onto her hand.

“I wanted to tell you. I just didn’t know how. I mean I had to get you to agree to even date me and I was being very forward already without getting into our kids. William, Mia. The third child I would have wanted to try for.”

“I didn’t want for things to progress between us and then drop the news of my illegitimate child on you but I couldn’t very well march into your office and declare William to you. I’ve never even met him myself since I ended up here.”

“You did the right thing. I don’t think I could have handled a declaration of love, a proposal and details of all our children as well,” Felicity smiles at him.

“Do you want to find William? You know me, I can find anyone so we’ll find him when you’re ready.”

Wordlessly Oliver scoots over and snuggles into Felicity’s outstretched arms.

“There’s one more thing,” he murmurs.

“Twins?” Felicity jokes. “Between black mail and a long lost child I can’t think of what else will crop up today.”

“I didn’t tell you about William in the past and we broke up. Worst year of my life. And I was in purgatory in Lian Yu so you can imagine how bad it was.”

“Aww what happened?” Felicity asks in a coaxing tone. Oliver snuggles in further and looks mournful.

“Long story short I kept the William secret from you and went to visit him behind your back. You couldn’t settle for anything less than my trust so you broke up with me when you found out. We tried to move on by dating other people. It was a very dark and ugly year.”

“We dated other people? Again?” Felicity asks kicking him out of her arms.

“To be fair I didn’t date anyone when you dated Palmer! I just wanted to die. This time you when you dated that cop I decided I was going to self improve and not die. I was trying to demonstrate growth only it was a very stupid pointless event.”

Oliver vehemently tries to defend himself after consciously realizing that the stories of him screwing up in their relationship were piling up.

“Who did we date?” Felicity asks with the air of one who was both curious and horrified at the same time.

“Oh after the love triangle with Palmer you’re going to find these set of events unfortunate,” Oliver answers quickly. “It had none of the glitz and glamour of the love triangle with Palmer.”

Felicity narrows her eyes at him. “Why won’t you tell me who we dated?”

“You know canned soup from Costco that you reheat? It was like that. I could tell you but it was like canned soup from Costco warmed up.” Oliver in an uncharacteristic move openly wrinkles his nose in distaste.

“Not even soup from the chilled section of Wholefoods?” Felicity asks hopefully.

“Costco,” Oliver affirms.

“Very well then. I suppose I don’t want to know.”

“Oh I accidentally killed him. The other ex boyfriend,” Oliver mentions casually in the interest of honesty but hoping desperately that Felicity would gloss by this piece of information.

“You what?” Felicity squawks at him in outrage.

“It was a VERY rough year,” Oliver answers looking at her beseechingly with puppy dog eyes.

“Come back in here,” Felicity sighs as she opens her arms for him.

Oliver scampers into them right away and snuggles in, nuzzling her neck. He looked so happy and content lying there in her arms.

Felicity did not know what came over her as she leans down and presses a kiss onto his lips.

Oliver responds eagerly. The kiss deepens and Felicity finds her mind spinning as a thousand sensations descend on her all at once.

_“Felicity Smoak? Hi I’m Oliver Queen”_

_“He took the wrong woman.”_

_“Don’t ask me to say I don’t love you.”_

_"We're always saying good-bye to each other. You'd think I'd be good at it by now."_

_"Felicity Smoak, you have failed this omelette."_

_“She is the one who lights my way.”_

_You don't have to carry that burden any longer. Let me do it."_

_"Latte, Ada, Jonas, 1-1-9-0-0."_

_“My greatest fear - my greatest fear in life is losing you”_

_"I love you more than a human being should love another human being.”_

_“You will always be the love of my life.”_

_"I love you so much. I'll love you even more when this baby's out of me."_

_“My only regret is not telling you I loved you sooner."_

Every word. Every kiss. Every single memory of _them_ returned to her with that one kiss.

“Oliver,” Felicity whispers as she presses her forehead against his, their noses touching.

“I remember everything Oliver.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Halloo! I'm supposed to be working on my tragic masterpiece but this story keeps distracting me!!!
> 
> I will get it out of my system so I can go back to my tragic masterpiece!
> 
> I really hope you still find it funny! It is first and foremost meant to be a comedy and I am so worried about veering off course!

“You remember? Felicity…I don’t understand. You remember everything?”

Oliver cups her cheeks with his hands and gazes at her, a look of disbelief intermingled with hope on his face. One should never hope for the impossible he reminds himself quickly. That he was here, alive with her and given a second chance was a miracle already. He didn’t dare believe that she could have memories of her past life, their past life.

“I remember everything Oliver. When we kissed…it all came rushing back. My head…my head feels like it’s currently overloaded with memories and information. It’s a feeling like no other.”

Felicity closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths, the barrage of memories taking its toll on her.

“Felicity, honey, are you alright? Should we go and get your brain scanned or something? I know your super power is your mind but even you would find it hard to process two lifetimes worth of memories and information. Plus we’re not superheroes in this life so maybe you don’t have your full superpowers?”

Oliver’s exhilaration at finally having everything back with Felicity is put on the backburner as he gazes at her with concern and proceeds to fuss, rubbing her temples and patting her forehead like he expects her brains to fritz right in front of him.

“Did you just insinuate that I am more stupid in this life than the last? Oliver Queen! I will have you know that I am just as smart in this life. You try loading two sets of memories at once and see how long it takes you to adjust,” Felicity grumbles at him indignantly.

Despite his still being concerned about the state of her brain, Oliver cracks a smile and kisses her on the forehead.

“I meant no such thing. You are brilliant in every life. I couldn’t believe I got a second chance with you again, let alone you with all your memories of us. I worry that it’s too good to be true and your brain will fry on me.” He places three soft kisses on her forehead.

“I felt the word spinning accompanied by some dizziness initially but I am fine now. All information loaded and I feel fine. Not even a headache,” Felicity soothes him by kissing him on the lips. It was an extremely peculiar feeling for her. In some ways it felt like she was two people existing in the one body.

There was the familiarity, the longing, the heartbreak, the love of a lifetime. So much love. The entire story of them in all their years together. She could search in the deep recesses of her mind and pull up every memory of them, every touch, every kiss.

However accompanying that wonderful familiarity was the part of her that had just met him weeks ago. Her bewilderment at being ambushed by him, the amusement and incredulity at all the outlandish things he declared about her, about them. Those feelings were all there and every bit as real as the life she had previously lived with him. So yeah…it was a lot of take in for Felicity.

Felicity focuses her attention back to her husband’s face (was he still her husband? Not legally she guessed) and finds him still gazing at her with concern. Knowing Oliver he was probably still fretting that her brain would explode and was now too caught up in worrying about her to enjoy their newfound happiness.

“Hey look what happened with just one kiss. Imagine if we f*cked! Could rebuild a whole other universe,” she winks at him mischievously, determined to lighten his mood.

“Felicity,” Oliver protests looking scandalized and then alarmed. “You shouldn’t say things like that.”

“Oh my goodness, you really are going to start worrying about what would happen if we f*ck aren’t you?” Felicity giggles as she squeezes his cheeks playfully.

“Well it’s going to be your loss because you were definitely going to get lucky now that I have my memories back. I guess you will still have to be the pining, tortured hero in this life for fear of the consequences that may ensue if you ravage me.”

She slides a hand suggestively down his chest and smirks just before making a move to walk away.

To her surprise Oliver grips her hand and pulls her back roughly into his chest.

“Build a new universe, build another galaxy, I guess we are going to have to find out Ms Smoak,” he growls into her ear. Before Felicity can get a retort in edgewise he lifts her up and throws her over his shoulder, his hand rubbing her tight pencil skirt covered ass, giving it a small smack.

“Ooh,” Felicity squeals. “You never did that in the past.”

“That’s because I had my way with you too late and you stopped dressing like Librarian Barbie,” Oliver retorts as he gently but gleefully spanks her ass multiple times. The universe may have owed him but it has tried to repay its debt in spades.

***

  
“You’re beautiful,” Oliver says gazing at Felicity. He didn’t know what possessed him to order a king size bed for the Arrow Cave (Felicity at the time had given him a wary look and told him that it was a strange furnishing choice amongst her computers, his training mats and the salmon ladder) but he couldn’t be happier or more grateful in this moment.

He was in bed with an armful of a warm and soft Felicity. Felicity who had all her memories back.

Oliver lets out a content sigh and pulls her closer to him, his arms banding around her as she snuggles into his body. Despite pursuing Felicity relentlessly this time round he’d never dared to imagine them like this. Sure he was bowled over by her beauty just like the first time, but he didn’t know why he could never let himself go here. He wanted so much with her. Marriage, babies. Mia. They had to make Mia.

Despite all those reasons, despite the very existence of their children depending on it, there was a part of him that couldn’t shake off the feeling of betrayal. That by being with Felicity, he was betraying the woman who had suffered all those years with him. The woman he’d left crying in a pile when he went off with the Monitor. The woman who mourned his death.

Rationally he knew it was still Felicity. His Felicity. She was simply now existing in a reset world where they hadn’t met yet. He hadn’t cheated on or betrayed Felicity. He’d been unable to resist pursuing her and the constant flirtation between them, yet there was a line he hadn’t quite been able to cross. Felicity regaining all her memories obliterated that line for him. He was truly at peace.

“What are you thinking in that pretty head of yours?” Felicity teases, kissing him all over. His face, his neck, his chest.

“That I’m finally free to have you,” he answers with a smile.

“I would have got it on with you soon enough,” Felicity giggles in between kisses.

“I was beginning to accept all those lavish tales of us and face it you are pretty darn fine Mr Queen so I couldn’t resist you much longer.”

“I’m sorry,” Oliver blurts out. He takes her hand and threads their fingers together. “I’m sorry I sacrificed your happiness, our happiness for the sake of the universe.”

“Oliver I understand,” Felicity says softly, gazing at him with a look of love. THE look of love and adoration. The look of a woman who had been through so much and yet would do it all over again for him.

“I thought I died Felicity. I died so that you, Mia, Will and everyone else could live. I thought I was at peace with that. And then suddenly I woke up and I had a fresh start. For a while I was too caught up in the thrill and happiness of pursuing you again to care about anything else. And this time I don’t care about anything else anymore. It was no longer my job to deal with the universe. I was going to pursue you and that was all that mattered.”

Oliver pauses, his voice cracks a little.

“I can’t help but think that in another life there is a heartbroken Felicity who lost me. One who cried for me. I brought you so much pain.”

“Oliver,” Felicity coos softly, taking him into her arms and settling him in the crook of her neck.

“I can tell you what I remember. I remember you leaving. I was a mess for the first few weeks. My world had crumbled around me. I pulled myself back together and managed to live some semblance of a life only to find out you were dead. I remember the devastation I felt when you died. All those days and nights, cuddling Mia on the couch as my only reprieve. But then that’s it. I can’t seem to remember anything else. I don’t know what happened to me after that. I just draw a blank there.”

“I should have taken your happiness into account too,” he says burying a sob into her neck.

“Hey no more guilt Mr. I would have perished if you hadn’t caused this reset. Whatever it is you think you’ve done wrong by me you need to let it go. This is your new chance at happiness remember? You just tapped twenty three year old me. Thanks for the restored youth by the way. I cannot believe how young I am! You should be very content and let yourself have this.”

“I love you. Sooooo much,” Oliver gazes at her with tear filled eyes.

“And I love you very much.”

***

“He’s tailing us again.”

“He’s just doing his job.”

“Sent by my mother no doubt.”

“Confront him Oliver.”

“How?”

“Good ol hand to hand combat and a chat afterwards in the Arrow Cave. Like that time you guys charged at each other. You do have all your super powers right?”

“Since your brain was able to process two sets of memories I assume I still have my skills.”

***  
“You guys are insane. You expect me to believe that story?” John Diggle glares at his captors as he tries in vain to wiggle out of the chair they had him handcuffed to.

“I wouldn’t waste my energy John. After years of knowing that this one could escape from any chair in handcuffs, surprisingly this always came about from our bedtime escapades rather than vigilante escapades. Didn’t you only escape twice from a chair for life and death reasons? All the other times it was to pin me down and ravage me wasn’t it?”

The chatty blonde goes off on a tangent and throws Oliver Queen a lascivious look that causes John Diggle to grimace in disgust.

He had no idea what he’d gotten himself into when he signed up to work for Moira Queen but now he was trapped in some sort of warehouse with a disturbingly charming blonde who over shared.

“Felicity,” Oliver coughs, his ears pinking up.

“Oh whoops. Sorry too much information. As I was about to say I have nailed this chair down so no need to wiggle around. We mean you no harm John. We just want you to understand that we are perfectly happy together so you don’t need to stalk us anymore. You can keep accepting Moira’s payments of course, we wont breath a word to any other soul. I myself took off with $3 million from her. Well I didn’t take off because clearly I am still hanging around having marvelous, bendy sex with this guy, he reset my age and the flexibility is just amazing.”

“Felicity!” Oliver exclaims looking mortified.

“Sorry,” Felicity winces.

“We’ll let you go soon. We just wanted you to sit and hear us explain ourselves.” Oliver adds in a conciliatory tone.

“So you tranquilized me and tied me to a chair?” John shouts at them in disbelief.

“That was my bad,” Felicity explains in an apologetic tone. “You see when I was in the woods with Mia I got preeeetty paranoid. So my instinct is pretty much to knock out first and talk later.”

“Oliver un-cuff him from the chair,” she instructs Oliver Queen with a beaming smile on her face. Apparently things were even worse than Moira Queen could ever imagine John notes.

Oliver looks hesitant however Felicity smiles at him encouragingly.

“Show of good faith,” she whispers loudly enough for John to hear.

Reluctantly Oliver walks up and removes the handcuffs. He immediately takes a defensive stance in front of Felicity as John rises from the chair.

“See? Now harm, no foul. I’m very sorry about the overreaction. Can we be friends?” Felicity beams at him pleasantly.

“We were practically family in the past life. Have the twins been born yet? Oliver told me he reset you to have twins after Barry messed up and switched Sara with JJ while he was tantrumming about his parents.”

“I can’t decide which one of you is crazier,” John shakes his head in disbelief as he slumps back down into the chair he’d previously been tied to.

“What now?” Oliver asks Felicity worriedly. “He won’t believe anything we tell him. He just thinks we’re crazy. Both of us.”

“Better crazy than me trying to date you because I’m a gold digger,” comes Felicity’s cheerful reply.

She looks thoughtful for a moment. “When you kissed me all my memories came flooding back.”

“I’m not kissing him,” Oliver protests swiftly and loudly with a startled look on his face.

“We could both kiss him?” Felicity offers vaguely clearly still lost in thought as to how they could pull John over to their side.

“NO ONE WILL BE KISSING ME! DON’T YOU TWO DARE!” John shouts looking even more bewildered than he already felt.

The most disturbing aspect in this whole saga was that, crazy stories aside, they both seemed like two genuinely happy people in love. Felicity Smoak in particular was highly amusing. Charming even. Nutty as a fruitcake but adorably charming.

John found himself wondering where it all went wrong. Oliver Queen he could understand. Five years on an Island enduring unknown horrors would do that to someone. Felicity Smoak for all intents and purposes had been a brilliant, young and vivacious girl with a bright future. For some reason she’d completely lost it within the span of a few weeks.

“You’re just going to have to trust that we’re fine and we’re happy ok,” Oliver finally says after a long bout of silence. There really was nothing more they could do.

“We will tackle Oliver’s mother. We won’t put you in an awkward position,” Felicity assures him earnestly and John finds himself thinking how likeable this girl was. Lyla would love her and be so amused by her antics.

“Not by tranquilizing her I hope?” John gives them a chastising judgmental glare.

“We will be using conventional means to speak to my mother,” Oliver assures him politely.

“Very well.” John gives them a dignified nod as he gets up to leave the warehouse.

Felicity quickly punches in the code on her tablet to open the door for him, eager to show him that they meant to keep their word.

“Come back anytime you like,” she shouts after him. “We were the Original Team Arrow in the past life. Come back and visit for old times sake!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First part was a bit angsty wasn't it? 
> 
> I figured since I have turned this into a full blown story there were some things I needed to address and couldn't just laugh off.


End file.
